When you’re in school, you seemingly have limitless time to sharpen your skills. In many ways, that is the point of academia: learning about different subjects to add to your overall knowledge base. However, once you enter the workforce, the education process shouldn’t stop. Now, this doesn’t mean you need to pony up for tuition—you may just need to take matters into your own hands.

Fortunately, plenty of options are available for the willing learner. Many companies offer internal supplementary education—after all, employee improvement benefits the employer, too—and courses can range across the spectrum, from industry-specific information to general skill building. For example, throughout my short career, I’ve taken classes like “Finance 101” and “Public Speaking” through my company, Fisher Investments.

There is also that little resource known as the Internet, which can connect you to any interest you have in a matter of seconds. A simple search on a topic like “Computer Coding” will yield plenty of introductory material, much of it free. Those who seek to enhance their professional skillset have a bounty of options—the hardest part may be figuring out how to start!

Lex parsimoniae. That’s Occam’s razor in Latin: Simpler is, often, better. While this seems like good life advice in general, it is particularly apt for your resume—especially the layout. With myriad templates and advice available, putting together a resume can feel like a daunting task. However, in my view, if you allow Occam’s razor to guide your thinking and execution, you can craft a resume that says everything you need about your experiences and skillset—cleanly and succinctly!

One viewpoint to consider: How would your resume look on a mobile device? With more folks accessing email via their phone, there is a good chance someone will view your resume on a much smaller screen than you used to make it. Knowing this, it makes sense to avoid any complicated formatting that may not carry over or appear as originally intended. That doesn’t mean a cookie cutter template is superior to a customized resume, but be aware that a complex or fancy-looking layout may not always present the message you wish—especially if it doesn’t show up at all.

Did you take a “career assessment” survey in high school? It probably seemed more like a personality test rather than a rigorous exam aimed at matching your personal talents with the appropriate field of work. Then, after you enter the workforce, you probably found that many of your coworkers took interesting paths to get where they are today. Maybe they started working right after school; maybe they took time off and traveled or pursued a personal project; maybe they’re transitioning from a completely different career. Everyone’s story and journey is different.

That is why questionnaires and other personality assessments are limited, in my view. Your responses may indicate what you like or what you’re interested in at the moment, but it tells you nothing about where you’ll actually end up. The obstacles and opportunities life presents you with—and how you respond—will do much more to determine your next job and overall career progression. Pigeonholing yourself into a particular field based on an arbitrary test closes you off from a multitude of opportunities—some which may end up being a better fit than you think.

What do job descriptions and gates have in common? They both serve as deterrents (except to those who have a key). For hiring departments, a robust, detailed job description can help save time—many would-be applicants may take themselves out of the process if they don’t meet all the listed qualifications. However, some point out this would be a mistake. Now, I’m not suggesting qualifications mean nothing and can be ignored. For example, if you see an opening for a software engineer, you should probably have some working understanding of a computer language or two at bare minimum.

But if you find that you meet most of the qualifications, weigh the pros and cons of applying. At worst, you’ll be turned down—something that could happen even if you fulfilled every single bullet point in the job description. But what if your inquiry got a response? That response could lead to an interview, and once you have your foot in the door, who knows where it could lead? Now, this isn’t a call to overrate your skillset. But if you feel like you can meet a given job’s requirements, don’t let the description take you out of the running.